The Hunt for Victoria Holmes

The Hunt Begins

I remember that day all too well. I was sitting in Mycroft’s office as uncomfortable as always while he formulated a plan to get me out of London. Jim Moriarty was dead and it was hard to tell if his body had been found yet, but that was the least of my concerns. The real problem was Sebastian Moran, a longtime friend turned enemy in the course of one day. We didn’t know how much time I had before London, more like England, was entirely unsafe for me. Moran was a master gunman and a master hunter. He taught me all I knew, so he would undoubtedly be one step ahead of me at all times.

                “Dear God I wish you would just settle on a name already; alright, Victoria, you have a few options here. You could stay in London and have to live your life entirely paranoid even with house arrest and a constant guard or I could erase you completely from all records, give you another new alias, and move you to a remote part of the world. The choice is entirely up to you, but I would suggest the latter.” Grinning smugly, Mycroft leaned back in his seat with his legs and arms crossed.

                “I’m sure you would love for me to disappear from your life again. Though, I suppose you never truly left me alone, did you?” I watched him skeptically, but he didn’t reply with anything more than the wider spreading of his smirk. “There really are no other choices are there? I would quite like to stay in at least the UK, but Sebastian would find me much too easily. I guess the only thing I can do is-”

                I was cut off by the sound of gunfire and a bullet attempting to shatter through the bulletproof windows of my elder brother’s office. The two of us immediately ducked down, quick to find cover as Mycroft’s men rushed into the room. Managing to catch a glance, I saw a familiar head of red hair dropping to hide instead of attempting another shot. The two of us were rushed to Mycroft’s other office where there were no windows and the only people in and out had been screened for safety and screened again.

My heart was racing in my chest as I sank into my seat, head in my hands. I hated to admit it, but I had gotten a little weak hearted since the start of my time with Sherlock. The bright side to that was that it meant I was at least partly human, I guess. While I sat in silence, my brother stood outside the door, speaking with his head of security. Now I really had no other choice but to leave the country. Had the window not been bulletproof, he might have had a successful assassination that day and the thought of that actually scared me to no end.

“So, Rachel Langdon of Little Rock, how do you feel about moving to Long Beach, California for a while? You most likely won’t be staying there long considering you’ll probably need to move again in the next couple of months. Don’t worry about your bags, Mr. Watson has already brought them. You leave now.” Without another word, Mycroft began to walk away with the expectation that I would follow him and not ask questions.

“And what am I to do once I get there? Hm?” I raised an eyebrow as I kept instep beside him. “I don’t care how good you are at your job, there is no way that you have everything figured out this quickly.”

“Of course I didn’t. I’ve expected you to need my help fleeing for a while now, so some of this was previously planned. Some other things will be settled while you’re on your plane.”

“And what about-”

“Victoria, for the love of God, would you please stop asking questions? You can figure things out when you get there.” He trudged off faster, not allowing me to further question him.

*              *              *

 

                “You really are good at finding ways to disappear, aren’t you?” Sherlock’s voice came out in a deep, bitter mumble as he looked anywhere but at me.  The wind blew in coldly and he adjusted his scarf, turning more to face John.

                “You know I have no choice, Sherlock,” I sighed as he walked away.

                John turned to me, Mary hanging on his arm giving me a skeptical look. “Just…be careful, Jay-Victoria.”

                No one else said a thing to me as I boarded the plane quietly. I knew Greg would never even so much as look at me again unless it was in a police lineup, but it still bothered me that he wasn’t there to see me off. I had really messed up. But I would be back, no matter the circumstances.

A/N: And there is is folks, the first chapter to the long awaited sequel to the thrilling story of Jayden Holmes. Thank you guys so much for sticking with me through this whole process and helping to give me the will power to finally write this. I love you guys, thank you so much!